Phil it appears to be very simple. Open a new topic window, write the subject of your poll in the subject line, put any text you want in the usual box, and go down below where the "preview" & "submit" buttons are and you'll see the poll boxes. Put your poll question in the first box, and your first choice in the box underneath it. Hit the "add options" button, and enter your next option, and then do the same again and again til you have all the options you want. Then set a number of days you want to poll to run, or leave it blank if you don't want it to have a limited running time.
Hit submit, and you're done.